Share this

Timeline

Donatists Dug in Heels in North Africa

Dan Graves, MSL

Under the beating sun, two slaves of Carthage pulled their master and
mistress in a cart. As they drew abreast of some rocks, they turned
their heads with dull curiosity for they heard a noise. Armed men leaped
out, yelling. While some pulled the owners out of the cart, others
released the slaves from their harnesses. Within moments the social
world was turned upside down. Two uncertain slaves were seated in the
cart and the frightened owners were harnessed to the cart shafts.
"Pull," shouted the men, brandishing swords and spears.

This was not an isolated incident. The turmoil in North Africa was
the result of an ugly instance of spiritual pride. It began in 303 with
one of the most horrific persecutions ever unleashed against the church.
Its buildings were demolished, Christians tortured, clergymen arrested,
and scriptures confiscated. The instigator of this onslaught was
Galerius, the co-emperor of the Roman Empire, who insisted that
Christians were disloyal. Diocletian agreed to crush them.

During the persecutions, many Christians apostatized, offering
sacrifices to Roman gods, and some cooperated with pagan authorities as
far as their consciences allowed. Here and there, bishops canceled
public worship, intending to lie low until the trouble passed over. Some
gave up scriptures, considering lives worth more than manuscripts.
Others gave up heretical books, pretending they were scriptures. But
staunch Christians refused to cooperate at all with the authorities, and
were tortured or killed.

Galerius finally called a halt to the terror and asked for Christian
prayers. By then he was dying, eaten alive by worms. His successor
renewed the oppression, but the next emperors, Constantine and Licinius
agreed on a policy of religious toleration.

At once the church quarreled over what should be called betrayal of
Christ and who should be allowed back into the church. In North Africa,
hard-liners said that any bishop who had forfeited scriptures under
persecution, had forfeited his holy office and its powers.

When the church as a whole refused to apply this stringent rule to
offenders, the hard-liners set up rival bishops. In Carthage, the
Catholic bishop was Caecilian and his rival was Marjorinus, soon
succeeded by Donatus. Donatus considered Caecilian an illegal bishop,
because he had supposedly gone so far as to picket against martyrs held
in prison and because one of the bishops who consecrated Caecilian was
considered a traitor.

Constantine ordered a council to meet at Arles to decide the issue.
On this day, August 1, 314, the council met.
It handed down a decision in favor of Caecilian.

Donatus and his followers dug in their heels. Private feuds fueled
their schism. For instance, the bishops of Numidia joined Donatus
because they felt slighted by the church and a leading woman joined him
because she resented Caecilian for rebuking her for kissing the relics
of a saint not recognized by the church.

Bitter division resulted in North Africa. The behavior of the
Donatists suggests that pride had more to do with their stand than
principle. They actively sought martyrdom and (according to their
opponents) even engaged in suicidal behavior to win death. When
Constantine ordered their property confiscated, the Donatists joined
forces with groups who sought to abolish class distinctions and set up
communes. They used violence and intimidation to right social wrongs and
even forced masters out of carriages, making them pull their slaves.

Although divisive, the Donatists had some good ideas. For
instance, it seems that they believed that church and state should be
separate. Donatus asked, "What has the emperor to do with the
church?" But the sum effect of their breakaway was to weaken North
Africa so that it was more easily overrun first by the Vandals and then
by the Muslims.

Bibliography:

Aland, Kurt. Saints and Sinners; men and ideas in the early church.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970.

"Donatism." Encyclopedia of the Early Church,
produced by the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum and edited by
Angelo Di Berardino; translated from the Italian by Adrian Walford ;
with a foreword and bibliographic amendments by W.H.C. Frend. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1992.